Word: japanned
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Smaller lenders are increasingly under stress due to the country's stumbling economy and growing competition with new banks set up by the ongoing privatization of Japan's postal system, which for decades acted as a government-run banking system. Hiromichi Shirakawa, chief economist at Credit Suisse Japan, says that several regional banks have also been hurt by investments in securities sold by the bankrupt Wall Street giant Lehman Brothers, and by soured subprime-related securities holdings...
...While the failure of Yamato Life is being regarded as an isolated case and not an indication of an ailing insurance sector, some economists say there is growing concern about Japan's property market and the damage that could be done to the banking system if real estate developers and owners began failing in large numbers. New City Residence Investment Corp. became the first REIT to go under since stocks of property trusts were first allowed to trade publicly on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2001. "The major REIT failure last week has affected the regional banks' balance sheets," says...
...HITACHI, JAPAN The Mall is Closed For Taira Kamoshida, the founder and the owner of a successful dry-cleaning chain in the small Japanese city of Hitachi (pop. 195,000), the bad news hit like a bolt from the blue. On Sept. 26, Kamoshida was told by his management office that Hitachi's main shopping mall was closing its doors - and one of his dry-cleaning shops located there was instantly out of business. "There was no sign at all of the closing down," says Kamoshida, 63. "On the contrary, my store finally started to break even and was even...
...Kamoshida isn't the only one caught by surprise as Japan deals with the cascading effects of the crisis. The mall, Sakura City, opened in late 2006 to much fanfare, and initially housed 60 stores, including the area's only supermarket. Its closure has cost about 400 people their jobs, and effects are rippling out into the community, says Tadayasu Yamamoto, chairman of the Hitachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry. "Shop owners of the nearby shopping arcades are in trouble and so are the consumers," Yamamoto says. "We cannot allow the city's ray of light to be extinguished...
...what's really good for the dollar is China, which has a couple of solid reasons to help maintain the stability of the U.S. currency. One is that China is one of America's biggest creditors; the country holds some $519 billion in U.S. Treasury bills (second only to Japan's $593 billion), and it doesn't want to see these investments eroded by a slumping dollar. In addition, China is increasingly worried that an economic slump in the U.S. and Europe will curtail its export growth, dealing the Chinese economy a serious blow. To keep the prices...